Blocked

Awakening brings blindness

The shrill anxiety of the alarm clock

The bed creaking in irritation

Loud feet, a toilet flushing

The kettle boiling frantically

Move, move

Words forming fleetingly in a foggy head

Hydrogen and oxygen combining,

Growing, then dying

Stay—

Here are the soft colors of morning

Pink sky dotted with dark birds

Sitting on powerlines

Soft blues and greens, houses, lawns

And the harsh yellow schoolbus with its flashing lights

Imposing on the gentle pastels of morning

Insubstantial, and they sink through your mind helplessly

Fizzing, bubbling, then

Cooling

Silence buzzing through your head

Replaced by the feverish hum of touch and feel

Pushed backwards against a white water fountain

Into a locker

People following close, too close, as

Hands brush against arms, shoulders

Heels and toes collide

Not enough room

The last few drops sizzling to nothing

In an empty kettle that someone plugged in

Careless

Thoughtless, to set something going with no fuel

And there's nothing coming anywhere

As teachers' words go unheard

And your own leap and disappear

And all your senses go numb

And everything you do so naturally is

Blocked